Thugs Attack Trans Africa College Property

Mohammed Alhassan, IGP Weeks after the Trans Africa University College (TAUC) in Accra reported a case of trespassing and vandalisation of its property to the Airport Police, it has emerged that some thugs have invaded the property again.

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that at about 10pm on Monday, September 15, some suspected hooligans, numbering about six, invaded the property and destroyed the doors and windows of the property currently under litigation.

Sources say the thugs had boasted that they did not fear or care about the police.

The sources wondered why the police had failed to provide security for the property although it had promised to do so.

The property in question was leased to the school in 2006 to train students in Tourism and Hospitality Management by the owners of the land at the plush Airport Residential area.

However, just as work was about to start, there was a letter from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, dated June 25, 2007, informing the school that the said property had been allocated to the Ministry by the Confiscated Assets Committee and had not been de-confiscated.

The school was subsequently advised to suspend development until the de-confiscation had been done.

Claims But the school alleged that it had been informed that some thugs had besieged the property—located on plot number 55 at West Airport—breaking the padlock to the property and vandalising the place.

A statement dated September 9, 2014, issued earlier in Accra by Samuel Segbefia, Director of the school, said the behaviour of the thugs had the potential of leading to more serious troubles.

He averred that ‘as a law abiding institution, we are therefore calling on the police to quickly provide security to forestall further troubles and to ensure sanity.’

Mr Segbefia appealed to the police to provide security and protection for the property.

Solicitors for the school, M.K. Ampaw & Associates, in an August 20, 2007 letter addressed to Egyir Dadson Esq. of SIMA Consultancy, Legon, had complained about the unfair treatment meted out to the firm’s client.

‘The activities of the Ministry have affected my client in developing the said property such that materials and equipment sent to the site have deteriorated and going bad,’ the letter stated.

It further stated that ‘I have the firm instruction from my client to bring this unfortunate development to your notice for you to take the necessary steps to ensure that my client would have a peaceful occupation and enjoyment of the said property without any interference.’

Ministry Of Food and Agriculture WarnsThe Ministry of Food and Agriculture had also, in a June 2007 letter authored by Alidu Fuseni on behalf of the then Minister, cautioned Trans Africa College to desist from further development of the property.

‘You are therefore being advised to, in your own interest, desist from any further development of the property until the matter is sorted out with the Confiscated Assets Committee.’

Probe When contacted on phone earlier, Superintendent Anyidoho, the Airport Police Crime Officer, could not speak to the issue except to say that the police had begun investigating the report by the school.